Cloud storage giant, Dropbox, has recently announced that it will be undertaking a second round of layoffs impacting 500 employees, approximately 16% of its reduced headcount, an effect of the pandemic’s economic impact. CEO Drew Houston wrote in an email to employees, detailing further information about the laid-off workers. Each worker will receive a severance package, notification of their exit of the company, and individual meetings with their team lead and Human Resource representative.
Despite many workers’ fear that their jobs will be taken by Artificial Intelligence (AI), Houston claims that is not the case. As the company amps up its AI-operations, Houston explains that workers, where possible, have already been shifted to departments with requirements matching their skill sets. As for those who have to go, the company has provided each laid-off employee with sixteen weeks of pay, six months of COBRA healthcare, provisions for hardware and a career transition assistance.
On the other hand, Houston understands the move is still difficult to scale, but believes that this change is necessary in order for the platform to remain competitive in the AI-era. With laid-offs tapering off recently, the future of employment and AI-related layoffs is yet to be seen.
Dropbox is a San Francisco based cloud services provider, founded in 2007. It is one of the most popular tools for file sharing and cloud storage, with more than 500 million users worldwide. It offers its services to both individuals and businesses, offering various subscription plans with various levels of storage space.
Drew Houston is an American entrepreneur and CEO of Dropbox. After graduating from MIT, Houston founded Dropbox, connecting the cloud storage service to over 500 million users across 180 countries. He is a renowned computer scientist and technology leader and has been awarded a variety of awards, including the Techcrunch Founder of the Year award.
